Spotlight not indexing external ssd

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Level 1

115 points

Spotlight not indexing external ssd

On my Mac Studio running macOS 12.4, I can't get Spotlight to index any files/folders on an external SSD. When I use Spotlight to search for files, no files on the external drive are listed. Similarly, when I use Finder search no files are listed. I have tried very simple search terms e.g. “the” and various files types I know are on the drive. I have also tried searching the drive itself and “This Mac”. But, no files are found.

Some details:

The drive is a Samsung 1TB SATA 6Gbps SSD in an enclosure which provides USB3 data at 5Gbps. The enclosure is connected to a Thunderbolt 4 port in my Mac Studio. Finder accesses all files correctly and all apps can open the relevant files on the SSD correctly. That is, all files/folders are accessible.
The drive is formatted with APFS.
I have Read & Write permission on the entire drive but “Ignore ownership on this volume” is on.
Spotlight indexes the internal SSD perfectly.
It also indexes APFS volumes on an external 2TB HDD perfectly:
- Spotlight updates the index immediately if I change any files on the external HDD.
- The external HDD is in a LaCie enclosure outputting via USB 3.0 to a TB 4 port on the Studio – much the same as the SSD.
- Both the SSD and HDD were erased on another Mac running macOS 10.15 Catalina.

I have tried many ideas:

Rebuilding Spotlight index as suggested on Apple's Support page (Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support). That failed with this error:

I have run First Aid on the drive and the volume inside the drive. Disk utility reported no errors and searching the drive was still not working.
I tested the drive on my old mid-2011 Mac Mini running OS X 10.13.6. Worked perfectly. Finder search worked on the drive no matter what I did to discourage it.
- I took the drive back to my Mac Studio and plugged it into the original TB4 port – searching not working.
- I turned off file hiding (command-shift-.) and I could see that Spotlight on the Mac Mini had indexed the drive almost immediately after mounting. Back on the Studio, it’s clear that Spotlight is not indexing the drive.
I tried one of the USB-C ports on the front of the Studio – searching not working.
I tried a different TB4 port – searching not working.
I tried to force re-indexing on the external drive with: sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/[external drive]

Result was this: “Error: unknown indexing state.”

I also tried to force re-indexing of individual files and folders with: mdimport -i /Volumes/[external drive]

Result was nothing – not even an error message.

Does anyone know why this is happening ?

Are there any bugs in macOS Monterey that would cause this problem ?

Could there be something in or about the SSD which is preventing Spotlight from indexing that drive ?

What does “Error: unknown indexing state.” mean ?

Mac Studio, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jun 9, 2022 7:04 PM

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Answer 1

Garry Brooke Author

Level 1

115 points

Jun 12, 2022 8:36 PM in response to Garry Brooke

So, I erased the SSD and immediately Spotlight started indexing the drive – even before I starting restoring from backup.

So, there was something on the SSD that was preventing Spotlight from indexing it. Probably permissions related although, Disk First Aid found nothing wrong.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,750 points

Jun 12, 2022 4:59 PM in response to Garry Brooke

• I tried to force re-indexing on the external drive with: sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/[external drive]

Result was this: “Error: unknown indexing state.”

Delete the .Spotlight-v100 folder from the External and attempt to re-enable indexing.

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Answer 3

leroydouglas

Level 10

205,546 points

Jun 12, 2022 5:51 PM in response to Garry Brooke

Garry Brooke wrote:

Thanks.

I did that early on. Indexing on the drive was not re-enabled – a week later and a number of restarts and there is still no .Spotlight-v100 folder.

I'm thinking of erasing the entire SSD and starting again.

With the external plugged in

You can rebuild the spotlight database from the Terminal.app copy & paste:

sudo mdutil -E /

(note: your psswd will not echo type it in anyway. use the enter\return key to proceed.)

type something into spotlight and you can see if the index has started

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Answer 4

Garry Brooke Author

Level 1

115 points

Jun 12, 2022 6:08 PM in response to leroydouglas

As mentioned in my post, I did try something similar: sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/[external drive]

Anyway, I tried your suggestion "sudo mdutil -E /" using an Admin user account. I waiting for indexing to finish. No change. The SSD still has no Spotlight folder and Spotlight still does not find any files on the SSD.

Before I wipe the SSD, I'm going to try playing with permissions. Permissions on hidden folders are a little different to my external HDD. I'll try to make them the same.

Also, the SSD has this hidden folder: ".DocumentRevisions-V100". Weirdly, permissions on that folder are "No Access" for all accounts. That might be relevant to my problem. Two other hidden folders also have "Write Only (Drop Box)" for all accounts: ".TemporaryItems" and ".Trashes". More research needed.

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Answer 5

Garry Brooke Author

Level 1

115 points

Jun 12, 2022 6:26 PM in response to Garry Brooke

UPDATE: OK, it seems that the ".DocumentRevisions-V100" folder has nothing to do with Spotlight and indexing. So, I'll leave it alone. Also, I doubt the Trashes and TemporaryItems folders are relevant either.

So, I'm left with the last resort to erase the SSD, restore its contents from backup and see what happens.

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